To Redeem Oneself
by Saru Kada
Summary: [on hold] Why does Guilmon keep calling Takato 'Takatomon? What if Guilmon were right? This is a heavily AU fic based on what Season 3 would be like if Takato were a digimon. Rukato. Chapter 2: Serendipity UP
1. Prologue: Incubus

Hey all!  This is my first fic (non-poem) on ff.net.  I've had this idea floating around in my head for months now, and I've finally gotten off my lazy ass to bang it all out.  Keep in mind this is highly AU, not only because the plot would be incomprehensible without some character changes, but because I've only seen a handful of season 3 episodes.  Without further ado, here it is!

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.  If I did, well…. 

To Redeem Oneself 

Prologue: Incubus 

            The tranquility of the stark, desolate sands was disturbed only by the soft crunching produced by a solitary figure making his way across the deserted beaches.  The dark figure seemed to have some sort of motivation in mind as he trudged across the barren land.  The occasional nosy Scubamon was dispatched with a low-power Flame Inferno; other than that, however, the traveler seemed to be unimpeded in his journey.

            He paused when he reached the entrance to some sort of sea-side cave, seemingly pondering if it would suit his needs.  After a moment of thought, he gave a satisfied grunt and entered, electrifying blue eyes scanning the small area.  It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

            He set to work immediately.  Calling upon all the data he had collected in the past, he managed to force it into his palm, where it collected in a hazy white orb that spun with unearthly fervor.  Into it he poured his anger, his rage, his hatred, everything he stood for and symbolized.  When he was finished, it glowed with an unnatural red shimmer.

            The figure's eyes betrayed his emotions to the rest of the world.  He seemed to be content, but in a sort of demonic way.  Before he could admire his creation more, however, his thoughts turned to the orb's applications.  He racked his mind for a place to send it.

            The Eastern Quadrant?  No, it had already been overrun with those pathetic digidestined – his eyes narrowed at the simple thought of that name.  The Northern Quadrant?  He didn't know enough about the Northern Quadrant to send it there.  The Western Quadrant perhaps?  Too risky, one of the three angel digimon there would probably detect it and destroy it before it could merge.  And that left the Southern Quadrant, which seemed like a perfect choice, since Zhuqiaomon's hatred for humans would probably cloud his senses.

            The Southern Quadrant it was then.  The figure extended his arm to its full length, chanting a spell in some long forgotten language.  The orb seemed to expand as the figure's chanting grew louder, and then it simply flashed white and disappeared.

            The figure collapsed onto the ground.  Both the creation of the orb and the cross-dimensional spell he had cast upon it had severely drained him of his energy.  He would need a while to recuperate, and the small, dark cave he resided in would provide ample protection due to its relative obscurity along the battered shoreline of the world known as the Dark Ocean.

-----

            After passing through dimensional rift, the orb emerged into a bustling West Shinjuku.  Darting around buildings and into alleyways as if it had a mind of its own, it sought a sentient being possessing enough dark energy to free its master.  It spent many days traveling through the city like some sort of specter returned from the grave.

            At long last, it found a host.  Residing within a bakery in one of the more residential areas of the city was a young boy who seemed to radiate dark energy despite his rather shy and kind demeanor.  Content that its master would be most pleased with this specimen, the orb waited until night fell, and then, as if acting on cue, phased through the boy's bedroom wall.  The boy had fallen asleep at his desk, lamp still on, pencil still clutched tightly in his hand as if he were merely pondering a new work of art.

            The orb approached the boy, taking care to stay low to the ground as to minimize the amount of light it produced.  Creeping along the wooden floor, it rose as it approached the chair, sliding around the backrest stealthily.  It paused above the boy's body, hesitating, as if unsure of its decision.  Then, with an air of finality, it plunged itself into the boy.  The light spread from his back and outwards, washing over every part of him from the tips of his fingers to the soles of his feet like a wave of light.

            Then it was gone.  And the only indication that anything had been there last night was the small symbol that had mysteriously appeared on the boy's chest, like some sort of tattoo, pulsating with an eerie yet dull red light before fading into a darkest black.

            It was a hazard symbol.

-----

There you go, my first ever digimon fanfic.  I've always wanted to write one, but I've always been too lazy to start one.

One of my motivations for writing this story is since I was predicted a 5 (basically my teacher guesstimated that I would receive around 70-80ish on my finals) for English, I've decided to write a few stories (well, story, since this will probably be pretty long) to sharpen my skills.  So, any and all constructive criticism is appreciated!

Umm… anyone wanna be my beta reader?  I'm sure there are a few spelling and grammar errors in there, and I could always use someone to help fill me in on a few facts about the third season of digimon.  If you would be kind enough to help me write this thing, then send an email to sarukada@hotmail.com or leave a review.  Thanks!

Expect this to be updated on a whenever-I-feel-like basis, a.k.a. anywhere from once every week to once a month, depending on what homework I have and how motivated I feel.

PS somebody tell me how to italicize and bold! ARGH!


	2. Chapter 1: All the Difference

I got reviews? …lol.  Amazing o_O

Thanks to all the feedback, I'm motivated to put OFF my history essay worth 20% of my final mark aaaaand work on this.  Thanks to you guys.  You're great, I love you. =D

Disclaimer: Maybe if I convinced my parents to buy some stock, I could own 0.0000013% of Digimon.  As it stands right now however, what I own of Digimon sort of approaches 0%.  Comprende?

To Redeem Oneself

Chapter 1: All the Difference

            "TAKATO MATSUKI!  GET UP THIS INSTANT!"

            As he groggily lifted his head up from his table, Takato thought to himself, _This is most definitely NOT a good way to wake up in the morning_.  Blinking a few times to clear his vision and reaching over to turn off his desk lamp, Takato stood back and stretched, yawning for all he was worth.  Immediately afterwards he slumped forward in his chair, scratching his back, mumbling about 'another absolutely _wonderful_ day at school'.

            His mother poked her head into his room this time, intent on making sure that boy was not late again: "Takato!  Hurry up or you'll be late for school again!"

            Quite annoyed with his mother's actions, Takato turned his head to the side and with a death glare the likes of which had never graced his face before, retorted: "Why the hell should I go?  It's not like it'll get me anywhere anyways!"

            His mother, shocked beyond belief hearing such words from her 'little boy', stuttered, as if unable to find the right words, then closed the door behind her and left.

            Takato blinked.  He had just surprised himself with the words coming from his own mouth; it was like his mouth was working independently of his brain.  Even so, it was strange, because what he had said… felt sort of _good_.

            So engrossed in his thinking was Takato that as he changed he didn't notice the black mark across his chest, like some tattoo, except glowing with the slightest glimmer of red.

-----

Mie Matsuki literally collapsed, the wall the only thing keeping her from sagging to the floor.  Breathing heavily, she thought back to what Takato had said to her.  It just… didn't seem right!  Takato had never talked back to her, and had never even sworn before!

            Struggling to stand, she could only accept the fact that her little boy had started growing up.  However, when he had turned his head, she could've sworn that she saw the tiniest flash of crimson in his eyes…

-----

Takato trudged to school with much on his mind.  He had had the strangest dream last night.  Of course, he had weird dreams every night, but this one was different… this one seemed too…… realistic.  He recounted the events in his head:

_Takato looked around.  He seemed to be in a forest; experience told him it was one of the more remote areas of the West Shinjuku park.  He looked around, confused as to his purpose there, before shouts of 'Thermal Mane!' and 'Diamond Storm!' caught his attention.  Following the flashes of light, he entered a small clearing where a Lynxmon was battling a Renamon seemingly under the control of a violet-eyed orange-haired girl wearing her hair in a spiked ponytail._

_            He watched as the battle raged on, with the Renamon seemingly losing despite the girl's best efforts.  In the end, a battered Renamon was driven into the ground, with the Lynxmon standing wounded but proud, claws outstretched, eyes seemingly focused not on the helpless digimon before her but rather the human beyond.  With a snarl, the Lynxmon leapt over the Renamon, who could only give a weak cry and watch as the Lynxmon's claws drew every closer to the girl's throat._

_            With a shout of indignation, Takato leapt from the bushes without knowing what spurred him forward.  Seemingly motivated by some innate desire not to see the girl hurt, he interposed himself between the girl and the Lynxmon with surprising speed, and threw a punch towards the Armour digimon.  All present at the scene were surprised when the Lynxmon was thrown back with such force bits of data started streaming from its jaw.  As it landed on its feet, Takato deigned to give it time to recover, instead forming a small fireball between his hands.  As the Lynxmon's eyes widened, Takato thrust his arms forward, and with a desperate cry, called upon words that had seemingly formed in his mind:_

_            CHAOS FLARE!_

            The dream had ended there.  He had never met that girl before, but now that his curiosity had been piqued, he was determined to set out after school to see if he could find out who that girl was.  Unfortunately, his train of thought was interrupted when the ringing of the school bell entered his ears.  Cursing, he dashed the last few meters towards the entrance, literally flew up the stairs, and threw open the door with such force it left a mark on the wall where the handle had slammed against it.

-----

            Rika Nonaka came to slowly, also awakened through a mother's incessant shouting.  Similarly cursing to herself, she decided to shove the events of last night to the back of her mind while she got dressed.  Pulling on that ever-hated drab gray school uniform, she stepped out onto her porch to take a breath of fresh air before heading back inside for breakfast.

            "Ah, Rika!  How nice of you to join us for breakfast!"  Rika's grandmother, the ever patient and ever helpful one, set a plate of steaming hot food at Rika's usual spot at the table.  Rika's mother was glancing over the morning's newspaper, and she cheerfully nodded to her daughter before going back to perusing the headlines.

            "Rika, I was just wondering… you see, there's this blah blah blah yak yak yak -"

            Rika always tuned out her mother if she started any sentence with "Rika, I was just wondering" or "Rika, I thought you might enjoy".  Besides, she had more important things to think about – like the boy who had saved her last night.  Of course, she was far too proud to admit that boy had saved her – he had merely sped up the Lynxmon's death.  But besides that, there were several things about the boy that were just plain weird.  For one, he had been a pale ghostly white colour, almost translucent, like a ghost.  He had also managed to throw a champion back with a single punch; meaning, of course, he was probably a champion level digimon himself.  The kicker had been the Chaos Flare attack – out of all the cards she had ever seen or owned, Demon was the only digimon to possess a Chaos Flare attack, and yet from her own experiences she also knew that a Demon looked far different from that almost frail-looking boy.  Further disturbing was the fact that the boy had vanished right after he had launched his attack and right before the Lynxmon was deleted – Rika had been quick to order Renamon to absorb its data, something the boy had forgotten to do.  Oh well, it was his loss anyhow.  Still, something about that boy was off…

            "… so what do you think, Rika?"

            Rika, who hadn't even been listening, knew what her mother was asking her to do anyway, and with a resentful "no", she finished her breakfast, picked up her bag, and headed for the door.  She would consider that strange boy later.  She laughed to herself at the thought of what her classmates would think if they knew she had spent more than 10 seconds thinking about a boy.  Then again, all of her classmates were just shallow airheads.  Still, she berated herself for wasting so much of her precious time on such an insignificant thing and resolved not to spend any more time thinking about him.

            Throughout the day, however, she could not help but let her mind wander back to that eerie boy and his well-timed intervention. 

-----

            "Jeri Katou?"

            "Here!"

"Kenta Kitagawa?"

            "Present."

            Ms. Asaji looked at one specific seat in the classroom.  Just as she had expected, Takato Matsuki wasn't there.  Sighing, she was about to skip to the next name, when leisurely strolling into the classroom as if taking his sweet time was the one and only Takato Matsuki.  Setting her clipboard down, Ms. Asaji cleared her throat.  Either Takato didn't hear or didn't care; he simply put his bag down, sat down on his chair, and propped his legs up on the table.  Ms. Asaji raised an eyebrow at that action.

            "Takato Matsuki?"

            Takato merely looked away.

            "Takato, don't you dare ignore your teacher!  You've been late again for the -"

            She was silenced by a glare.  Startled by this new change in Takato, she was left without words for a moment.  This was when Takato struck back with:

            "What's the matter?  Cat got your tongue?"

            Now visibly shaken, Ms. Asaji could only say, "Ta-Takato M-Matsuki, s-see me after class to-to-today…"

            With a nonchalant smirk, Takato simply retorted with a "Yeah, sure, whatever" before taking his legs off the table and going to sleep on his desk.

            Ms. Asaji shook her head, muttering to herself, before continuing with the roll call.

-----

            Jeri poked her head into the classroom, not really expecting to see anyone but Takato.  He was the only one there, sitting at his desk, completely engrossed in whatever he seemed to be doodling on a piece of notebook paper.  Despite what he had done earlier that day, he seemed to be enjoying himself, allowing himself a small smile to develop as his hand gracefully sketched the curves and lines of what looked from that distance to be some sort of red dinosaur.  Smiling to herself, she took her hand puppet out of her bag, slipping it onto her hand, before skipping into the room and heading down the aisle for Takato.

-----

            _Rock Smasher?  Rock Cracker? Hum…_

            Busy pondering attacks for his little 'creation', Takato looked up, as if searching the classroom for inspiration, but as he did, he came eye to eye with Jeri, who had reached his table by that time.  Caught slightly off guard, he eyed her warily, as if she were a counselor.

            "Ruff!  Ruff!  Jeri wants to know how you're doing!"

            Groaning as he set down his pencil crayon, Takato thought to himself, _Damn that annoying sock puppet… somebody needs to burn it._  Quickly shaking the darker thoughts out of his head, he fixated Jeri with an apathetic expression, and replied, "Why the hell would you care?"

            "Ru… Ruff?  Say… what?"  Jeri sort of stood there with her mouth open, brain so numb that she even forgot to 'talk' with her sock puppet.

            Developing a severely malicious grin, Takato asked again, "Do you not get it, you air headed bitch, or do I need to speak in 3rd person too?"

            On the verge of tears, Jeri lowered her sock puppet hand, sniffled, and managed to sob out an "I'm… sorry…" before turning tail and running out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her.

            Takato watched her retreating figure until she left the classroom, before giving himself an indifferent shrug and going back to developing his dream partner digimon.

-----

            Takato sighed as he shut the door behind him, doing his best to shut out the strains of his mother's yelling that was still seeping in through the bottom.  It had been a very confusing day for him; the last thing he needed was an agitated mother to drive him up the wall for coming home at 'such a late hour'.  It wasn't like what he did with his own time was her business; after all, he had only been searching for that orange-haired girl (with no luck, unfortunately).  Dumping his bag on his already messy floor, he plopped into his seat, and with a yawn, retrieved the picture he had been working on that day in school from his pocket.  He allowed himself a small smile as he fingered his drawing.  He had designed his Guilmon to be slightly more powerful than the average rookie; this, of course, meant that its other forms would most likely be more powerful than others of the same stage.  Setting it down, he bent over to retrieve a tin can out of his bag, one that held some of his most prized possessions: his digimon cards.  He always kept them with him now; he didn't know why, but he always felt safer when he had them on hand.

            Reaching for his card reader, he allowed himself a small gasp of shock when the small device shook violently at the touch.  Emitting a high-pitched whine, white light poured from the body of the card reader.  Withdrawing his hand with due haste, he stared at the object until the light eventually died down.  It had been transformed somehow; instead of the toy card reader that had once been present, in its place now was some sort of new device.  It was a solid red with black highlights; the colour scheme initially reminded him of Guilmon, the digimon he had created with a similar skin colour.  Pushing that thought out of his head, he examined it closely, and noticed it had some sort of slot that seemed to match the one his card reader had.  An idea quickly formed in his mind.

            He would later admit to not knowing what compelled him to slash his picture of Guilmon through his new 'card reader'.  It might have been that part of him had foolishly hoped with whatever little naïveté he had left that the picture might turn into a living, breathing Guilmon.  Perhaps he had expected that the object he held in his hand was a new type of digivice and that he had already been chosen to become a digidestined.  Whatever the reason, when he slashed his picture through his card reader, it seemed to turn itself on, its dim gray screen becoming instead some sort of radar, with a small red blip first flashing in and out rapidly and then slowly turning into a solid red light.

            Takato stared at his screen in sheer disbelief, seemingly mimicking the actions of the people who had the misfortune to run into him earlier that day.  Suddenly snapping to attention when he realized the implications of what had just transpired, he this time allowed himself a large smile – though more a smirk than a smile.  Strolling over to his window, he heaved it open with a solid push, leapt over the side, and down to the ground below.  He landed on his feet, and, not even pausing for a moment to catch his breath, sped off noiselessly into the night.

-----

            "Yamaki, we've got something!"

            Mitsuo Yamaki was snapped out of his reverie.  Clicking the lid of his lighter shut one last time, he turned around and walked towards the dome that housed Hypnos' tracking system.  Casually leaning over the rail, he asked, "What is it?"

            "We've got what looks to be a Wild One coming in fast.  Its power levels are amazing - I've never seen anything like it!"

            After Reika had finished, Megumi continued for her: "It's too fast.  It's going to breach!"

            Growling, Yamaki could only shoot off a "Where?" as he turned to view the rapidly moving red target travel across the screen towards the green destination marker.

            Reika affirmed his worst fears: "Realization in West Shinjuku in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

-----

            In the middle of a construction site which workers had long abandoned in favour of their comfortable couches, entertaining televisions, and voluptuous wives, a pillar of solid red light streaked towards the sky, followed by a heavy fog seemingly generated at the base of aforementioned pillar that spread out rapidly in a concentric pattern.

-----

            A rapidly advancing fog confirmed Takato's hunch: whatever that red dot on his digivice (as he liked to think of it) was, it was probably located where the construction site was.  Scaling the fence with relative ease, he set off towards where the fog seemed heaviest.

            Ducking below some girders, he entered a small part of the site where the foundation was just being built.  Noting that the fog had mostly cleared off now, he headed towards where it was still most condensed.  Stepping forward, he realized he had just walked into a large pipe-like structure, where there was no fog and light from nearby street lamps was cast onto the floor from several holes in the top.  As he took in his immediate surroundings, he became aware of a red dinosaur-like digimon with its back to him.  He started to take another step forward, but was startled when the digimon reared its head back, then let loose a shout of "Pyro Sphere" alongside a large red fireball.  The attack struck home, nailing two unfortunate rodents who had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

            The digimon then turned around to face Takato.  Though somewhat shocked at what his slashing of a picture had done, he maintained his poker face.  The digimon's eyes seemed to dilate rapidly – a clear signal that he was a virus.  They stood there in mutual silence for quite a while, before Takato decided to venture forth with a "Guilmon."

            Its eyes still dilated into its viral form, the Guilmon uttered a low growl, before snarling "Takatomon" in return.

            Then, Takato turned around, and with his hands in his pockets, proceeded to walk away, seemingly expecting the digimon to follow.  And follow he did, as Guilmon proceeded wordlessly to catch up with Takato, then continued to walk beside his partner as if all was right with the world.

-----

            As he reached his home, Takato was now faced with two major problems: first off, where to keep Guilmon, and second off, how to get back home.  Having left his home in haste, he had neglected to consider how he would go home.  He rounded his house into the alley, where he spotted a large cardboard box among several others that his family's bakery had recycled that day.  Grabbing the largest one, he turned around, and handed it to Guilmon.  Seemingly reading his partner's thoughts, Guilmon accepted the box before turning it over and placing it on his head.  He then walked, box and all, back into the alley, where he sat down and began to rest.

            Having solved one problem, Takato exited the alley and traveled over to the main entrance of the bakery once more.  Considering how to climb in, he looked over the front of the building.  Inspecting the brick wall closely, he noticed several dents in the bricks.  Smirking to himself at his good fortune, he secured his hand around one of the bricks, placed his foot on another, and started climbing.

            Of course, his progress was eventually impeded by a lack of suitable places to step on.  Noting that the tops of his hands were still a good half-meter from the ledge of his window, he decided to jump.  Summoning all the power he had, he coiled his body up, muscles tensing, then leapt with as much might as he could muster, hands outstretched and reaching for the window.

            Funnily enough, he seemed to have used too much power, as his head struck the ledge with such force that it broke clean off.  The two wooden ends separated from the wall and fell to the street below, echoing along the sidewalk with a loud clatter.  All the while, Takato, despite his concussion-like injury, managed to grab onto the sides of the window, and proceeded to perform a little flip into his room an Olympic gymnast would have been proud of.

            Congratulating himself on a job while done, he brushed the wood shards off his shirt, before starting to change into pajamas for the night.  His door had been locked, so his parents probably didn't know he was out.  Whatever they didn't know wouldn't hurt them anyway.

            Settling in for the night, he smirked at the thought of having attained a digimon partner.  Maybe now he could fulfill his dreams of becoming a digidestined.  Hopefully there would be no others to ruin his quest to become the most powerful digidestined in his world.  He laughed at the thought of deleting the other digidestined's digimon and absorbing their data in front of their human counterparts.

            All the while, the digital hazard on his chest shone with a dim, though still unnatural red light.

-----

            The next morning, Takato woke up without any prompting.  Sitting up and yawning, he felt refreshed and completely rested for once.  Glancing over to the clock, he noticed that it was only 7:30 AM.  Wondering why he had woken up so early and why he wasn't as fatigued as he used to be, he decided to take any extra time he received to look for that red-headed girl he had 'met' earlier.  Hopping out of bed with unheard-of enthusiasm (for anyone waking up at 7:30 AM anyways) he dressed rather quickly, not wanting to waste any time, once again missing the symbol on his chest.  Gathering his notebooks, pencil crayons, sketchpads, and the various other materials he would need to pass his time at school, he stuffed them all into his backpack before flinging it over his right shoulder.

            Cracking the door open, the smell of fresh baked bread quickly permeated his senses.  Breathing in the fresh smell deeply, he swung open his door and stepped out, straining his ears.  He heard tidbits of conversation down in the kitchen, but decided not to linger around eavesdropping, and quickly headed downstairs.  Passing by the counter, he reached for a small pastry slathered with gratuitous amounts of butter.  Continuing on his path, he stopped before he left, then turned around and reached for a large loaf of bread.  Returning now to his original heading, he exited the door.

            The ding of the door chime alerted Mie Matsuki from her dialogue with her husband about their son.  Rushing towards the counter (not really expecting any customers at this time of day), she only caught site of a backpack and a tuft of brown hair – it was gone immediately thereafter.  Allowing the implications of that sighting to sink into her head, she stood there for a moment as her husband set down his bread to come forward, before dashing out the open door.  Taking in all the surroundings, she couldn't spot her son anywhere.  Upon reentering the bakery, her husband gave her a look that suggested 'are you feeling all right?'

Ignoring that, she walked up the stairs.  Noting the open door to Takato's bedroom, she walked over shakily, before almost jumping inside, taking in the neatly made bed, well organized room, and missing backpack.

            She simply couldn't decide if this 'new' Takato was for better or for worse.

----

            Entering the narrow alley again, Takato noticed the box was still where he had left it yesterday night.  Heading over, he gave it a light kick, and waited expectantly.  A few seconds passed before Takato gave it another kick, this time slightly harder than the last.  Finally, Guilmon poked his head through the top, blinking rapidly, as he was still sleepy.  Eyes rapidly dilating in the presence of his partner, he easily shrugged the cardboard box off, nearly destroying the flimsy material in the process, before turning to his tamer as if awaiting an order.

            Handing the loaf of bread to his partner, Takato turned around and started off, intent on finding that girl he had saved.  As for Guilmon, he wordlessly accepted the bread, and started off behind Takato, devouring his food slowly as his kept his eyes on his tamer.

-----

            Passing by the park, Takato was instantly struck with an idea of where to keep his digimon partner.  Entering, he headed directly for the place where he had often played digimon with the two stooges, Kazu and Kenta.  Passing by a small hill, he proceeded towards the small concrete enclosure half-hidden by the thick foliage and luscious ferns that were common to the area.  Walking up the semi-concealed staircase, he swung open the small metal gate, and stepped inside, Guilmon still behind him.  Turning his head around, he noticed his partner had just finished off his loaf of bread.  With a command of 'Stay here, Guilmon', as if ordering a dog to heel, Takato turned and left quickly, not wanting to waste any more time that he could be using to find that other girl with a partner digimon.  Staring at the retreating form of his tamer, Guilmon's eyes returned to their normal form as the Takato walked further away, but he still seemed to maintain his air of professionalism (of sorts) as he started forward.  Though Takato had ordered him not to do so, he was keen on leaving to follow his tamer; after all, Takato _was_ his partner.  He sat down, bent on attempting to resist the temptation of following Takato, but decided against him.  Looking around for something to do, he noticed that the hut he was in was rather cramped… it could be dangerous if he were caught inside.  So, heading to the back, Guilmon took a look at the cement, readied his claws, and began to dig.

-----

            His day at school just as uneventful as his last, Takato headed out of the yard, intent on going to continuing his search for the girl.  Heading back to the park, he seemed to notice something in the air.  Perhaps it was just him, but… something seemed off.  Something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  Senses alert, he stopped, scanning the nearby area.  Standing very quietly for a few moments, he detected a faint rustle that seemed to stand out among the rest of the park's usual cacophony of birds chirping and leaves rustling amongst the wind.  Smirking to himself, he decided to humour the digimon and whoever its tamer was, and mentally kept track of where the noises emanated from behind him.

-----

            Rika, already used to her digimon's habits, was not surprised in any way as Renamon phased in behind her.

            "Well?"

            Renamon spoke.  "I sense a digimon near here, but didn't see any digital fields.  Perhaps it's another digimon partner."

            Rika nodded.  "Well, let's go check it out."

            Renamon was hesitant to add this, but: "Also… I noticed that strange boy from two nights ago, when we were battling the Lynxmon."

            Rika's eyebrow rose at this.

            "He was heading in the direction of the digimon I sensed earlier too."

            Rika's expression lit up at this.  "Then that's two birds with one stone.  Lead the way, Renamon."

            Nodding, Renamon took off in the direction of the digimon, her tamer jogging behind her.

-----

            Having picked up Guilmon and glared at him slightly for cracking the concrete in the hut, he decided to let his digimon off since it would be pretty boring to be stuck in a little hut all day.  Still keeping track of the ever approaching digimon, Takato decided to head to the park's playground, where the open area would give Guilmon the advantage as whatever digimon that seemed to be following them had a habit of darting from tree to tree.

            Entering the playground, he noticed it was vacant.  _Excellent_, he thought to himself.  Walking to the center of the park, he stood there as Guilmon obediently stayed behind him.  They stood still in the clearing for a few moments.

            Then, Takato's sense went wild like they never had before.  All time seemed to slow down as he felt, no _knew_ what was going to happen next.  Whirling around, he ordered: "Guilmon!  Pyro Sphere! NOW!"

            Imitating his tamer's actions, Guilmon spun around on a dime while charging up his fire attack, and unleashed it.  It struck something in the chest, something white and yellow as far as Takato could make out.  Performing a back flip, it landed on the ground near a tree, slightly burnt, in a crouching position.  From behind the tree stepped out – 

            Takato raised an eyebrow.  It was THAT girl!

-----

            Rika's eyes narrowed.  It was THAT boy.

-----

The Rant Place

I'd rant here, but I already ranted in Yuuhi no Yakusoku, and I'm too lazy to do it here.  I will, however, comment on a few things – hopefully I've kept most everyone here (except Takato, obviously) in character… if you spot any OOC errors, tell me please, so I know what I'm doing wrong.

Not much besides that.  I'd rant more, but I really wanna play Diablo 2. J

Once again, comments and insults go in the review box below or to sarukada@hotmail.com.


	3. Chapter 2: Serendipity

Damn… so lazy.  Don't want to do anything… but must finish fic.  I'll put the rants at the end.

It's funny.  I thought writer's block would be my major problem… I have no end of ideas… and also no end of laziness.

I think I failed my history test.  Thank you!  
  


NOTE:  I think I forgot to include a glossary, so here it is:

Blah: stuff

BLAH: important stuff

_Blah_: thoughts

-----: blah… I mean… scene/POV change

Disclaimer: Do I reeeeeeeally have to say it, or are you smart enough to figure it out for yourself?  Fine, I'll do it anyways: I don't own digimon.  If I did this story would be season 3.

To Redeem Oneself

Chapter 2: Serendipity

            "Who are you?" asked both simultaneously.  One growled in annoyance, the other merely smirked.

            "Well, answer me!" exclaimed Rika, who at the moment was losing much patience with every passing moment.

            Takato's smug grin only grew wider.  "The name's Takato, your royal bitchness.  And you?"

            By this time, Rika was fuming – "What did you just call me?"

            Takato was enjoying himself far too much.  "Are you deaf too?  I thought retarded people had acute senses to make up for their lack of intelligence!"

            That was the last straw.  "Renamon!  Walk all over him!"

-----

            Henry was passing through the park, deep in thought.  His 'toy' Terriermon hung around his neck, seeming almost lifelike – if you believed in the existence of digimon, anyway.

            As far as he knew, he was the only person with a digimon – he had yet to see someone else with one.  Of course, he couldn't possibly be the only person with a digimon – he expected that much.  Of course, he had set out to find other digimon, and being the smart type, he decided to search the park first, since it was where a digimon would be most easily hid.

            Shouting could be heard in an area of the park close to him.  Straining his ears, he could make out shouts of "Pyro Sphere!" and "Diamond Storm!"

            Recognizing the latter as a digimon attack – that of a Renamon, specifically, he turned his head to look at his partner (as best as he could while Terriermon was hanging off his shoulder anyway), and, receiving a nod, set off towards where the battle seemed to be.

-----

            Leaping up in the air, Renamon fired her attack.  "Diamond Storm!"

            Looking up, Guilmon fired a Pyro Sphere that blasted through the diamonds that were going to hit him, so the rest of the projectiles landed uselessly around him.  Growling, Renamon dived in an attempt to land a few punches and kicks, but Guilmon, resisting most of the attacks with his thick skin, lunged forward and latched onto Renamon's right arm.  Grunting, Renamon tried her best to shake him off, but Guilmon had other plans; as his right arm came up, Guilmon let go of Renamon for a second, before slashing downwards with his arm: "Rock Breaker!"  Renamon, now in pain, was knocked away some distance.  Her eyes flashing, Rika grabbed a card.

            Takato looked closely in the item in her hand – it was a digimon card!  From the card game!  But what was she going to do with it?

            "DIGIMODIFY!"

            Oh.  That.

            "Hyper Speed, Activate!"

            Grunting, Renamon lifted herself off the ground, then phased away as a Pyro Sphere hit where she had been lying moments before.  Phasing in meters away, she began darting around the playground equipment, seeking to catch Guilmon off guard.

            Mentally, Takato cursed.  With that additional modification, Renamon would probably be more than able to land a few good hits on the slower Guilmon.  Racking his brain for possibilities, he looked around him… and noticed a fence.  Instantaneously his brain worked faster than it ever had before, putting the fence and an old digimon manga he had read before together.  Grinning to himself, he hollered, "Guilmon!  Retreat!"

            Guilmon, confused, still did as he was told.

            Rika's expression instantly changed to a confident smirk.  "We've got this one Renamon!  Attack!"

            Renamon instantly charged the unready Guilmon, who was hit rather roughly, flying back into the chain link fence just as Takato hoped.  Putting on a fake look of worry, he turned to his partner!  "Guilmon!"

            Rika's smirk only broadened.  "Renamon!  Finish him!"

            This was where Takato's expression changed.  The sweet taste of victory filling his mouth already, Rika noticed this and worried that – just for the slightest moment – that this boy had something else in mind.  Of course, she quickly dismissed that notion.

            Renamon leapt forward, ready to deliver the killing blow.  But Takato had other plans…

            "GUILMON!  NOW!"

            Already nearing the Guilmon at top speed, Rika and Renamon both watched, astounded, as Takato's plan snapped into place.  Opening his mouth, a ball of red gathered inside it, and Renamon, with her hyper speed card giving her too much speed, and unable to change her course due to being in midair, could only brace herself as Takato's strategy became all to visible to them.

            "PYRO SPHERE!"

-----

            It was Takato who got the last laugh, as Renamon was sent flying backwards, having received the brunt of a full-power Pyro Sphere at point blank.  Having already been injured badly, that last attack sapped Renamon of all her strength, and she was knocked to the ground unconscious.  Guilmon shrugged himself off the fence nonchalantly, and begun approaching the Renamon, as Rika searched desperately through her cards for something that could be of use.

            "Stop!"

            Both tamers turned their heads to look at this newcomer, who had blue hair, an orange vest, and a Terriermon hanging off his neck.

            "Who are you?" they both asked simultaneously, again.  Glaring at each other (this would have been funny had their partners not been trying to kill each other mere moments ago), it was Henry who broke the silence.

            "You guys… why are you fighting?"

            Rika crossed her arms and glared.  "Not like it's my fault gogglehead over there decided to provoke me."

            Takato only rolled his eyes and looked away.

            Henry, ever the pacifist, tried to calm the feelings of enmity between them.  "Come on guys… we're supposed to work together here, not -"

            Takato retorted, "Says who?"

            Henry sighed.  "We'll never get anywhere like that.  There are other digimon too, you know – except they don't have partners and tend to destroy things!  We have to work together to stop them or else people will get hurt!"

            "Whatever," stated Rika, "it's not like it's any of my business anyway."  At this point Renamon chose to wake up.

            Rika noticed this.  "Let's go Renamon, there's no point in staying here anyway."

            Turning and walking away, her Renamon got up slowly, then phased away after her.

            Takato snorted.  He, too, turned to walk away in the opposite direction, his Guilmon following obediently.

            Henry stared at the two retreating forms, and shook his head.  "Those two are going to make a lot of problems for us later", stated Henry to Terriermon.  Of course, being Terriermon, he responded "Momentai, Jen!  With our luck, those two will end up as a married couple!  They certainly act like one already anyways!"

            Henry sighed.  "Sometimes I worry about you, Terriermon."

-----

            Later that day, a few hours later, Guilmon and Takato found themselves in the park again, searching (ironically) for the orange haired girl.  He had forgotten to ask her name, and since she already knew his he figured it would at least be fair that he knew hers.  Besides, he wanted to know if she had the same 'dream' he had.

            Guilmon, who Takato had ordered to track the scent of Renamon, began to sniff a lot more frequently than usual.  Raising his snout in the air, he seemed to catch onto something, as the next moment he was running down the trail, leaving Takato to chase after him.

            The trail led them to an underground garage, where the trail ended.  Entering cautiously, Takato was not surprised to see Rika and Renamon standing there facing them, as if expecting them to arrive.

            Rika smirked.  "What's the matter gogglehead?  Back for more already?"

            Two could play the insult game.  "Right back atcha, pineapple head!"

            The smirk reversed.  "Got a death wish, gogglehead?"

            "No, but I'm sure your digimon does…"

            Once more, Guilmon and Renamon stepped forward to do battle – and Takato prepared his trump card… well, his trump cards really, for he had tested and learned the secret of slashing cards through his D-arc immediately after their former battle.  Armed with his deck and digivice, he stood ready to give the command to attack, when…

            "Stop it you guys!"

            Once more, Henry came charging down, almost sliding down the ramp, and interposing himself between the two would-be combatants.  "I don't want to see you guys fighting again!  Violence is not the answer; it doesn't solve anything!"

            While all this was happening, nobody noticed a small white digimon poke his head in.  "Wow, so many people here, Culu!  But they're all yelling and scary…" Deciding to keep himself hidden for a bit, he ducked behind a column to watch the tamers.

            Rika responded.  "Digimon are made to fight!  Why shouldn't we then?"

            Henry tried to settle matters peacefully: "They aren't made to fight!"

            "Who said they aren't?"

            "Who said they were?"

            This left Rika struggling with a comeback.  Meanwhile, Henry dashed up to Takato, who had been checking over the cars in the garage.  "Hey!  Don't you know who she is?"

            Takato shrugged.  "Should I?"

            "That's Rika Nonaka, the Digimon Queen!  They say she's the second best card player in all of Japan!"

            Takato still didn't seem worried.  "That doesn't say much."

            Henry was about to continue, but Rika had already made up her mind at this point.  "Renamon, attack!"

            Henry was not about to be outdone however.  "I didn't want to do this… but… Terriermon!"

            Leaping off his shoulder, Terriermon managed to hold Renamon back slightly.  "Terrier Tornado!"

            Miffed at this turn of events, Takato thought to himself, _at least I have her name now_.

            Looking at Henry, Takato decided that the other boy wasn't so bad at all.  He tried to be helpful… but he just didn't understand.  Tapping him on the shoulder, Henry whipped around to face Takato.

            Takato tried to return his kind deed – perhaps whatever vestiges of the old Takato that were left tried their best to be brought forward.  The old Takato hadn't been completely wiped out, just stuffed into a little corner.  "You know, being a pacifist won't get you anywhere."

            "And just why not?"

            "LOOK!"

            Turning his head, Henry gasped.  Terriermon was remaining on the defensive, and as a result was receiving a pretty good beating.

            Takato shook his head.  "You see, in this world… you can't stay on the defensive forever.  Someway, somehow, somebody will find a way to crack your defense.  And when that happens… what will you do?"

            Henry could only nod slowly.  "The best defense is a good offense… keep your opponent on his toes!  If he can't attack you back, then why do you have to worry?"

            Struggling with the new train of thought in his head, Henry could only watch the battle in abject horror.

            In the meantime, Terriermon was having much difficulty staving off the constant attacks from Renamon.  The smaller digimon, lacking the thick skin of Guilmon, was also slower than Renamon, so Renamon had a fun time battering him around.  It didn't take very long for Terriermon to land on the ground, severely injured.

            Rika frowned.  "That wasn't even a challenge!  Renamon, absorb his data."

            Henry was horrified.  "You can't do that!  He's a digimon!  A living thing!"

            Rika laughed.  "Digimon are just data!"

            By now, Takato's words were ringing true in Henry's head.  _The best defense is a good offense…  Someway, somehow, somebody will find a way to crack your defense… you can't stay on the defensive forever…_

            Shutting his eyes tightly and clenching his fists as Renamon powered up for her Fox Leaf Arrowhead attack, Henry cried out in anguish.

            "TERRIERMON!"

            Then…

            DIGIVOLUTION

            Terriermon… digivolve… to…!"

            Data was stripped away from Terriermon's body like a snake shedding its skin.  Terriermon's form grew and expanded, new data coalescing around his body and forming him into something more powerful.  Slinging gun belts across his chest, Terriermon's champion form then announced himself with flourish:

            "GARGOMON!"

-----

            Takato pushed Henry to the ground, Guilmon ducking by instinct, and Takato dashing away as Gargomon opened up.  Hitting anything and everything, Renamon was forced to take shelter behind a column.  As Takato traced the bullets, he noticed that Gargomon's arms… seemed to be…

            "RIKA!"

            Dashing forward, he came in from Rika's right side, having dashed into the vicinity beforehand to avoid the hail of bullets.  But now his intention was not to avoid them, as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, for some reason, to Rika.  Taking a flying leap, he lunged forward for the final few steps, crushing Rika in a bear hug as he did so…

            And then, he felt it - three acute spikes of pain, two in his chest and one in his leg.  Almost instantly, the areas he had been hit in felt like they were on fire.  He hit the ground, landing on Rika, shortly thereafter.

            Then, Guilmon tackled Gargomon, pushing him to the ground, forcing him back to his rookie state.  None of them had noticed the three small geysers of blood that had erupted forth from Takato's chest and legs.

            Stunned for a moment, Rika was quickly overcome by a feeling of disgust.  Literally kicking Takato off her, she stood up, brushing herself off.  As Renamon and Guilmon approached, Rika looked down on Takato.  "Look here, gogglehead – I don't need you acting like a hero, saving my life!  This is the second time -"

            She was quickly cut off.  As Takato rolled over, all could see the pained expression on his face.  More importantly, they could see that he was clutching his chest – which was soaked with blood.

            Gasping, she stepped back, drawing the attention of Henry and Terriermon.  They walked over, and taking in the spectacle before them, also reacted badly, Henry turning green, Terriermon stuttering, unable to speak.

            Takato groaned.  _God that hurts…_ he thought, lifting his hands to inspect them.  They were, of course, covered with blood.

            Henry regained enough composure to speak, although falteringly.  "Is… he?"

            Rika, also unable to speak, nodded numbly.

            On the contrary, however, Takato was starting to feel better.  His head, which had previously been dizzy as all hell, was starting to clear up.  _What the…_ he felt for his wounds again.  However, beneath his hands, the skin seemed to be healing.  He felt something get pushed out – that was one of the bullets that had been fired into him!  Knowing that he would not hear the end of this if he stayed, he quickly got up, finding it – not hard at all!

            Rika and Henry gasped with the speed at which Takato stood up.  His clothes were still bloodstained, but what shocked them the most was when three spent bullet shells, obviously from Gargomon's previous attack, popped out of his clothes, all landing on the ground with a clatter.  His wound seemed to have healed, and he was not bleeding anymore.

            Rika was still startled about two things – why he had saved her, and why he wasn't dead – and that left Henry to ask: "Takato?  How… did you…"

            Takato silenced him with a glare, before turning abruptly and stalking off.  Guilmon also looked at the others, before spinning on his heels to follow his partner.

            Rika and Henry glanced at each other.  Both had uneasy feelings about each other before, but now…

            Rika proposed the idea.  "I say we work together to find out what's wrong with gogglehead."

            Henry nodded.  "I agree."

            And so a truce, if a rather uneasy one, was made between the two tamers.

            After Rika left, a shaken Culumon emerged from behind one of the columns.  He had been peeking on the tamers when Terriermon had digivolved, and had been winged by one of Gargomon's bullets.  Still a bit uneasy, he said to himself, "Wow, what a weird bunch of people, culu…"

            Henry turned around.  Had he heard something?  Scanning a room, he found – much to his surprise – a shaken white digimon, who was sort of walking on the floor in a weird pattern.  Running up to him, he dropped to his knees, and asked, "Are you alright?"

            Culumon looked up at Henry, and then smiled.  _I wonder if he'll be my friend?_  "Do you wanna play?"

            Henry looked abashed.  Looking at Terriermon, who shrugged, he asked, "Do you have a partner?"

            Culumon looked pensive for a moment.  "What's a partner?"

            Henry sighed.  "What's your name?"

            Culumon's face lit up.  "My name's Culumon, Culu!"

            Henry leaned back thoughtfully for a second.  Then, he offered his hand to Culumon.  "C'mon, let's find your partner."

            Laughing, Culumon dashed up Henry's arm and around his other shoulder.  "I hope a partner is someone who wants to play with me!"

            Terriermon chuckled.  "Not unless you get a boring one like I do!"

            Henry frowned as they left the garage.  "Quiet, Terriermon."

            "Momentai, Henry!" was the last thing that could be heard echoing in the garage.

-----

            Sneaking into his room without disturbing his parents (not wanting them to see the blood on his clothes), Takato took off his shirt and examined his chest.  That was when he noticed –

            _What the hell is that?_

            There was a large, black symbol, consisting of a triangle inscribed within a circle surrounded by three more triangles.  Takato didn't know what it was, but he was sure it hadn't been there before.  Then, suddenly, he realized: he had seen the same symbol on Guilmon!

            Bewildered, he decided to check his wounds.  They weren't there anymore – there wasn't even the slightest ding in his skin to signify he had been shot mere moments before!

            Still dazed and confused, he decided to get a bit of rest.  He had, after all, lost a bit of blood – he would need to clean that up later.  For now, though, he locked his door and fell on his bed, curling up in his sheets (a trait carried over from the old Takato) and thought about Rika.  _Rika… at least I know her name now_, he thought, _but why did I want to save her?_

            That was a question only the old Takato, stuffed into a small corner of his consciousness, knew the answer to.

-----

            Culumon giggled.  The park was such a big place, and filled with so many people too!  So many new friends to make!  Too bad all of them screamed when they saw him… maybe he scared them by accident!

            Darting through the trees like a small airplane, Culumon reminisced on the events that had brought him here.  He had been chased by a big, mean, digimon when he had tripped.  Fortunately, he had fallen through a hole and landed here, in this strange new place!  He had seen a lot of other digimon… they didn't seem like digimon though, they all looked alike and none of them ever attacked!

            He hadn't had much luck in finding a new friend yet, however.  He might be able to change that though!  Earlier he had spotted a red digimon walking into this hut with one of the other weird digimon!  He was going to check there and find out if he wanted to play!

            Seeing the hut, Culumon twirled around above it, enjoying his power of flight, before diving in through the front.  However, space was limited, and he was forced down a tunnel… and soon smacked something big and red.

            Shaking his head, Culumon looked up.  It was the big red digimon!  Hovering up to about eye level, Culumon tapped him on the shoulder.

            There was no response.  Maybe the big digimon was too busy digging!

            Clearing his throat, Culumon let out a "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

            Still no response.

            Huffing, Culumon turned away.  "Awww… you don't want to play… I'll just have to find someone else then."

            Slightly depressed, Culumon flew out the cement hut, bent on finding somebody new to play with!

-----

            A week had passed since Terriermon had digivolved into Gargomon – and since then, even Guilmon had digivolved into his champion form, Growlmon.  Now as the last tamer waiting for her partner to digivolve, Rika was getting very impatient – after all, Renamon was the best there was, wasn't she?  The strongest?

            Then why couldn't she digivolve?

            The more she thought about it, the more it troubled her.  She was the strongest tamer, the best in the digimon card game in all of Japan!

            Deep in thought, she didn't feel the chilling cold that had suddenly pervaded the surroundings until she was almost completely surrounded by it.  Whirling around, she came eye to eye with…

            Nothing.

            Rika now had a problem.  _That's the 3rd time today_, she thought.  _I should head home instead; I don't feel safe out here_.

            Always on the lookout, Rika traveled home wearily, constantly turning her head back to check for anything unusual.  Reaching her home, the first thing she did was run to her room and shut the door.

            "Renamon?"

            Her partner phased in as requested.  "Yes, Rika?"

            "Check to see if anything's outside."

            Phasing out, Renamon spent a few moments making sure the surroundings were devoid of any intruders.  She phased back in when she was sure she had checked every nook and cranny.

            "There's nothing outside Rika."

            Rika lowered her head, deep in thought.

            "Don't worry Rika," offered Renamon, "I'll do everything I can to protect you."

            Rika looked up with a slightly venomous expression.  "Why do you even bother saying things like that?"

            This surprised and hurt Renamon at the same time.  However, she had to keep her poker face on for Rika.  She wouldn't like her digimon showing any weaknesses.  "Because I'm your partner."

            Rika rolled her eyes in disgust.  "I don't buy any of that partner crap."  Striding over to the door, she opened it.  "I don't need you."  Turning her head to the side: "I don't need anyone."

            Leaving, she didn't bother checking behind her – which was beneficial for Renamon.  She wouldn't have wanted Rika to see her pained expression.

-----

            Impmon hopped along the city tops like the rascal he was.  Flinging the occasional Bada Boom at packs of  birds and feeling a perverse joy in watching them flee, Impmon decided to go over and check out the park.  The trees in the park would provide more cover for him, allowing him the ability to fling fireballs at random people or things with no fear of intervention.

            Having spent the day lobbing his attacks at people in the park and laughing when they ran, Impmon decided he needed a nice, quiet place to rest.  It was almost sundown; the sun was now a brilliant reddish-orange, barely hanging over the horizon.  Deciding to search for a shelter now rather than later, Impmon checked the park, and was rewarded for his patience when after a few minutes he spotted a concrete hut perched atop a small hill.  Leaping inside, he was astonished to find a big hole in the back – and another digimon digging it!  Strolling up with his usual arrogance, he tapped the digimon on his shoulder, and addressed him: "Hey dinoboy!  Whatcha working on there?"

            The digimon kept on digging.

            Impmon leered.  "Whatsa matter wit you, are you deaf AND dumb?"

            Silence.

            Impmon was greatly angered.  "Well, how bout I knock some sense into ya, hmm?"

            With that, Impmon powered up his Bada Boom attack, and threw it, nearly point blank, at the red digimon.

-----

            Guilmon had been working hard at his little tunnel.  Occasionally things came along to disturb him, but unless the 'thing' in question was his tamer, he paid it no heed.  He wanted a nice, deep, and easily defensible escape tunnel on the off chance a powerful digimon came in, and so was still digging his tunnel, when something decided to come in and bother him

            Naturally, Guilmon ignored it.  However, the noise the other thing generated became an incessant whine, which quickly turned into an angered shout.  Still, Guilmon kept digging – that is, until the thing decided to fire a digimon attack at it.

            The attack was a fireball, and coming from a weak rookie, did no damage to Guilmon, thanks to his tough hide and natural affinity for fire.  However, now Guilmon had been interrupted.  Severely annoyed, Guilmon turned around, opened his mouth, and spat an even larger fireball at the offending intruder.

            Some passer-byes who had been in the area reported a small red-and-black ball that came flying out of a small concrete hut atop a hill.  When the ball landed, loud swearing was heard in the direction that it had fallen.

            Brushing himself off, Impmon growled to himself.  What the hell was that guy's problem anyway?  Now he would have to find himself another shelter!

            As Impmon continued his search in his severely aggravated mood, he decided to toss a Bada Boom at anything that moved.

            There were many reports of youngsters disturbing the peace in the park that day.

-----

            More confident than she was before, Rika set out again to search for the source of the chilling feeling she got every time she felt something behind her.  Searching much of West Shinjuku, she was checking out an old building when she felt it – that same, freezing feeling she had experienced earlier.  Whirling around, she saw the shadow of something far too large and grotesque to be human dashing – no, flying – up a flight of stairs.  Sprinting up the stairwell, she came face to face with –

            Nothing.

            Slightly out of breath, she leaned against the wall.  Keeping an eye to the right where the shadow had vanished off to, she racked her brain for options – calling Renamon was most definitely not one of them.  She steeled herself; she would have to take care of this alone.

            So engrossed was she in her thoughts that she didn't notice two pale blue claws phase out of the wall behind her – until it was too late.

-----

            Takato was in the park to pass time; he didn't like staying at home with inquisitive parents and the constant chatter of new customers.  He liked it out near the hut, where the fresh air came and went as it pleased and the sunlight played across his content face.  His Guilmon was curled up in the corner, exhausted after adding another meter or so to his 'escape tunnel'.

            He hadn't spoken or met face to face with the other tamers since a week ago, when he had saved Rika's life – again.  He had avoided them like the plague: for some reason, he always seemed to be able to pick them out in the crowd and hide himself before they passed.  His senses seemed to be heightened now; there were things he noticed now that he had never noticed before, small things, like –

            Something diverted his stream of consciousness.  Some part of his brain was going insane, literally – he had a pounding headache, but only in that one part of his brain, for some reason.  Standing up, the rustle of his pants caught the attention of his Guilmon.  Looking over, Takato found that Guilmon's eyes were already dilated – a sure sign that something was awry.  Turning to face the steps down, he turned his head, left and right, until…

            There.  Something was telling him to go that way.  He didn't know how, or why – he hadn't been able to sense any digimon before!  Perhaps something was different this time.

            Beckoning for Guilmon to follow, Takato almost flew down the stairs.  Guilmon, who was fairly agile for something of his size and constitution, deftly cleared the stairs with relative ease.  He tried to sniff for the hostile digimon, but there wasn't any time.

            Takato had already set off at full speed.

-----

            Elsewhere, Henry, with his Terriermon 'plush toy', felt something strange.  He couldn't quite put his hand on it, however, and looked around him, searching for anything out of the ordinary.  Seeing nothing, he scratched his head, and when Terriermon tapped him repeatedly on the shoulder, he turned around - and sweat dropped when he noticed the humongous ball of ice stuck to the top floor of some building.  _How did I miss something as obvious as that?_  He thought to himself.  "There must be a digimon up there!"

            Terriermon chuckled.  "Whatever tipped you off to that fact, Sherlock?"

            Muttering an 'oh, shut up' to his partner, Henry set off for the building, which was still quite a ways off, his digimon torturing him all the way.

-----

            Rika came to quickly.  As soon as she was semi awake, she felt an unbearable cold sapping at her strength.  Immediately trying her arms and legs, she realized they weren't moving, and looking down, she found the source of her problems.

            Her body was frozen solid.

            "Ah, I see you've woken up."

            Death glare already on hand, Rika looked up to see a digimon.  Even without her D-arc, her extensive knowledge of the card game allowed her to identify the champion rather quickly: "Ice Devimon, Champion level, Virus."

            Ice Devimon smirked.  "It is nice to see that you appreciate my efforts to -"

            "Appreciate nothing!  Let me out of here now or I'll… I'll sic Renamon on you!" Rika spat, Renamon's name coming out even before she noticed.

            Ice Devimon only smiled wider.  "Renamon?  Pah… why stick with such a pathetic and weak digimon, when you could have so much more?"

            Rika was taken aback.  "What?"

            Ice Devimon spread his arms, as if offering an embrace.  "What I am saying is… why keep Renamon, when you could have me?"  He gestured in a circle.  "Look around you!  See the bodies of my fallen enemies – all were defeated!"  Then, leaning forward: "I offer them as tribute to you, Digimon Queen!  A gift, to signify our partnership!"

            Rika laughed.  "I'd take Renamon over you any day, you frozen freak of nature!"

            "But Renamon cannot even reach the champion level.  How can she be of any use, when she is constrained to the rookie level?"

            Those words hit home.  Ice Devimon continued: "Join me, and we will become unstoppable!  You and I are alike, you see – we both have hearts of ice!  As the perfect partners, nothing will possibly stand in our way!  All will fall beneath our feet, for we are-"

            Ice Devimon was interrupted mid-rant by the sound of clapping emanating from the entrance to Ice Devimon's frozen hall of horrors.  Both human and digimon turned to see none other than –

            "That's a very inspiring speech you gave there, Ice Devimon, I almost fell asleep listening to it."  Indeed, Takato's rather bland expression attested to that.

            Ice Devimon snarled.  Something was off about this boy.  Ice Devimon's senses were tingling – that was usually not a very good sign.  "And just who are you?"

            "Takato Matsuki, and Guilmon.  I'd say it was pleasant meeting you, but such a bold faced lie would be pointless."

            Ice Devimon was angered, but his attitude quickly became rather positive.  Turning back to Rika, said he: "As a final token of my devotion for you, my partner, I will kill the boy and delete his digimon for you!"  Turning back to his 'guests', he took to the air.  "You may have the first attack.  It is customary for me to be courteous to one who is about to be killed."

            Takato grinned in reply.  "Then let me spare no expense, noble sir Ice Devimon.  Would you like something to eat, perhaps your own words?"

            Guilmon didn't need any prompting as he threw his head back and fired a Pyro Sphere at Ice Devimon.  Leering, Ice Devimon allowed the attack to hit him; he wasn't afraid of any rookie.  He was surprised when the attack threw him back a bit and singed his wings, giving him a slight headache, but would most definitely not surrender so easily, as he was about to prove.  "Impressive… but not impressive enough!  Avalanche!"

            Guilmon sidestepped the attack with ease, and lunged forward to meet his opponent in battle.  Meanwhile, Takato ran forward to where Rika was.  Taking one look at the ice, he swung back, and then gave it a good solid punch.

            Rika laughed heartily.  "You aren't going to break it like that, Mr. Hero!"

            She was forced to take her words back, however, as a crack had appeared on the ice.  A chain reaction had been set off, as the crack lengthened and deepened, and shards broke off of the more fragile areas.  Takato followed up with a nonchalant punt, and the entire thing splintered into a shower of ice fragments.

            Ice Devimon, who was busy handling with Guilmon, the abnormally powerful rookie, noticed this new development.  Firing off his Tundra Freeze attack, he managed to encase Guilmon in a small block of ice.  While he struggled with that, Ice Devimon turned and dove at Rika.  "You will be mine, Digimon Queen!"

            Rika, who was fresh out of ideas, performed the only option available to her.

            "RENAMON!"

-----

            Ice Devimon was knocked aside in a flurry of ice and snow, his trajectory diverted far enough that he overshot his 'partner' and the boy who had freed her.  All present looked up, to see none other than:

            "Renamon!" cried Rika, more relieved now her partner had arrived.  Grabbing for her D-arc and cards, she already had her first card in her hand as Renamon leapt down to the ground, interposing herself between the champion and her tamer.  "I'm ready when you are, Rika."

            "Then let's even the odds!  DIGIMODIFY!"

            Renamon instantly felt a surge of new power surging through her body, and arched her back as it gathered near her spine.

            "Hyper Wings, Activate!"

            Takato, realizing what he could do, also drew his D-arc and cards.  Selecting a fitting one, he proceeded to slash it.

            "DIGIMODIFY!"

            "Alias, Activate!"

            Disappearing from his prison of ice and reappearing outside it, Guilmon joined the battle as the odds tilted to the tamer's favour – but still not enough…

-----

            Guilmon was knocked out first, Ice Devimon having deemed his fire attack to be far more damaging than Renamon's mostly physical ones.  That left Renamon, now sans Hyper Wings, to finish the champion – and she was having problems.  Being a full level higher, with the type advantage, Ice Devimon easily overwhelmed Renamon, who was now covered with various bruises and scratches, souvenirs of the fight.  Losing her innate agility, Renamon was tossed around like a rag doll once she had sustained enough damage, and was thrown down to the ground rather brutally.

            Culumon, who had gotten in the same way Renamon did, had gone unnoticed for the most part, and was having fun playing around with the snow, making little snowmen and throwing snowballs at them.

            Ice Devimon landed, and with a smug smile, began to approach the downed Renamon.  "Now, my Queen, my final gift to you!  I will show you… true power!"  With that, he prepared his attack: "Tundra…"

            Already out of cards and options, Rika, in a moment of insight, came to terms with what her digimon partner meant to her.  _I don't want to lose Renamon… I don't think I could stand it if I did…does that make her my…_

            _…friend?_

            At the mention of a word foreign to her, Rika closed her eyes to stem the flow of possible tears, before screaming out "RENAMON!"

            "I'M YOUR FRIEND!"

            "…Freeze!"

-----

            For the exhausted Renamon, the affirmation from her tamer was all she needed… to…

            DIGIVOLUTION

            "Renamon…. digivolve… to…!"

            Her old data pealing off with her skin, Renamon's form began to elongate.  Her arms and legs lengthened and grew thinner, forcing her body onto all fours.  Ornaments appeared on her head, as her tail elongated, then split into nine.  Her body accepted the surge of new power and Renamon, now Kyuubimon, felt refreshed as she stood up to face her opponent again.

            "KYUUBIMON!"

-----

            Rika was as shocked as Renamon's digivolution as she was at her own words, but she wasn't one to meander on something for too long, and she already had a new card prepared:

            "DIGIMODIFY!  Light Training Manual, Activate!"

            Ice Devimon's attack, which he had launched prior to Renamon's digivolution, now bounced harmlessly off.  Ice Devimon was taken aback.  "What!?"

            Rika was determined to pay Ice Devimon back for the inconvenience he had caused her.  "Renamon!  I want his data!"

            Kyuubimon filled with the same hatred Rika possessed.  "You will not live to see the light of another day!"  Spreading out her nine tails, each one seemed to glow with a bluish fire, before Kyuubimon decided to let loose with her attack.  "Fox Tail Inferno!"

-----

            Pain.  That was the only word coherent enough to make its presence known in Ice Devimon's mind.  How had that Renamon become so powerful with a single digivolution?  How had her attack hurt him so much?  Opening his eyes slightly, he jerked to attention when he noticed something: little streams of data were already trickling off his face!  Focusing his eyes on Rika again, his eyes narrowed.

            "If I cannot have her, then nobody can!"

            The implications of this took a while to sink in, but everyone caught on rather quickly.  Kyuubimon made a move to defend her tamer but it was too late as Ice Devimon had called on whatever reserves of power he had left to draw up an attack.  Lunging for Rika, losing data as his matrix destabilized, a fire burned in his eyes as he drew close to his target: "Avala…"

            Rika shut her eyes and turned away, expecting the worst, when:

            "CHAOS FLARE!"

-----

            The only thing Rika felt was the enthralling sensation of data washing over her, almost like a slight breeze.  Opening her eyes, she noticed a cloud of data that seemed to hang around her.  It was slowly and inexorably floating upwards, and she was about to command Kyuubimon to absorb it, when suddenly it seemed to be blown away, in a direction opposite that she was facing.  Turning around, she and Kyuubimon watched with extreme surprise as Takato absorbed Ice Devimon, the data imbedding itself into Takato, who had his eyes shut and arms extended.  When he was done, he opened his eyes, and crossed his arms, as if daring Rika to say something.  And she was about to, when:

            "What happened here?"

            At the door stood Henry, with Terriermon.  They had just arrived, having been delayed by various problems.  Now, however, they stared at the frozen museum, at Renamon's (Henry assumed it was Renamon) new champion form, and, most importantly of all…

            "…And why are Takato's hands smoking?"

            Everyone turned to Takato, who folded his arms behind his head.  Giving a shrug and an apathetic stare, he tapped Guilmon with his shoe lightly.

            "Let's go, Guilmon."

            Waking up, Guilmon was still covered in a few bruises.  However, he stood up immediately, shaking off the small collection of ice and powder snow that had accumulated on his hide like a fine layer of dust.  With that, he followed Takato, who brushed Henry aside as he headed for the stairs down and out of the building.

            Looking up, Henry looked to Rika for an explanation.  Renamon had de-digivolved, and both seemed to be engrossed in some sort of staring match, neither willing to speak first.

            "Uh… guys?  Mind explaining what happened?"

            Rika and Renamon looked over at Henry, then back at each other.  Then, Rika shook her head, and Renamon lowered her head in mute agreement.

            "Nothing much, same old, some digimon came in, and Renamon wiped the floor with him."  With that, Rika and Renamon also left, to garner more privacy for the discussion they were about to have.  When they left, Henry looked around, at the blast marks, the hole in the roof, the half-destroyed ice mound that seemed to have been destroyed from within, and sighed.  "We should go as well Terriermon… we won't find out anything here."

            One of the piles of snow in a corner of the room shook, and then burst open.  "Ta-da!"  Culumon presented himself.  Henry looked.  "Hey, it's you!"  Calumon giggled as he flew over to Henry and circled his head.  "Of course it's me!  Do you wanna play now?"

            Henry, however, was deep in thought.  _Culumon was there when Terriermon digivolved… and there when Guilmon digivolved.  Now, Renamon has digivolved and Culumon is here, and he's never here on any other occasion!  That makes me wonder…maybe I'm onto something here._

            Terriermon waved an ear in front of Henry's face.  "Hello, Earth to Henry, this is Ground Control!"

            Henry snapped back to reality, and then glared at Terriermon.  "I was thinking about something, you know!"

            Terriermon only smiled.  "Well, what is it, oh smart one?"

            Henry looked back to Culumon.  "I'll tell you later.  For now, we should get away from here before anyone else decides to poke around."

            Culumon rubbed his hands.  "Are we going to go play?  Yay!"

-----

            Takato was even more reluctant to face the other tamers, especially Rika, after that little spectacle.  Even Renamon, who had superb stealth and tracking skills, was not able to find Takato or Guilmon anywhere.  Of course, nobody really bothered to check the little cement hut where the two spent so much of their time, and usually Takato only had Guilmon fight digimon that had realized in or around the park.  Still, Rika was occasionally able to catch sight of Takato once in a while, but Takato would quickly shake her off his trail.

-----

            "Sir, the Shaggai system has been complete, and awaits your inspection!"

            Those words were music to Yamaki's ears.  Affirming his subordinate's statement, Yamaki pocketed his lighter for the check of Shaggai.  Walking around the machine, he was impressed with the speed and efficiency that the workers had finished it with – of course, he would not show that, for they would only grow slack if he did.  So, giving a grunt, he did not give them any more than "It looks alright.  We'll fire it up this afternoon."

            Quite satisfied with the work, he decided to take a walk outside.  He would probably look for one of the two kids he had spotted with digimon – the blue haired boy and the orange haired girl, and give them a nice long lecture.  He suspected there were more than two, of course, since around 45% of the digimon deleted by the children were not accounted for; the orange haired girl had 35% and the blue haired boy 20%.

            Clearing his mind of such thoughts, however, he decided to relax and enjoy the time he had before the Shaggai launched.

-----

            Slightly bored of the park, Takato had decided to take a walk out in the more industrial areas of West Shinjuku.  Having had Guilmon remain behind as not to arouse suspicion and to lower his chances of running into the other tamers, Takato kept to the busier streets, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells as he relaxed.  Turning a corner into a more isolated street, he ran into a blonde man in a black suit with sunglasses who had a lighter in his hand but no cigarettes in sight.  The collision shocked Takato a bit, but he regained his composure quickly.  The man was first to speak, however.

            "Watch where you're going, kid."

            Takato developed a lopsided grin.  "Practice what you preach, asshole… and where do you work, the morgue?"

            Yamaki developed a nasty case of flick-my-lighter-rapidly-open-and-shut-itis.  Growling, he decided to teach that kid a lesson.  "It's children like you who are ruining the world as we know it today.  Watch what you say, kid, or you might just find yourself in big trouble sometime."

            Takato took his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms.  "What, should I be scared?"

            Yamaki would have replied, but as Takato took his arms out of his pockets Yamaki spied something red with black trim.  Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be –

            "A digivice!"

            Takato snorted.

            "You're a tamer!"  Yamaki had a nasty snarl on his lips, but inside he was grinning like mad.  _Time to teach those ignorant kids a lesson_, he thought.

            Takato acted as if it wasn't surprising for somebody he had just met to recognize he was a tamer.  "And what of it?"

            Yamaki sighed.  "You poor kids… you all think this is a game, don't you?  Don't you realize what digimon stand for?"

            Takato cocked his head.  "Death and destruction?"

            Yamaki was taken aback, but quickly responded: "If you already know that, then why do you keep one as a partner?"

            Takato rolled his eyes.  "To prevent it, dumbass.  What's your IQ, 60?"

            Yamaki growled.  "Well, wouldn't it obviously be better just to eradicate all digimon, if we need them to protect ourselves from other digimon?"

            Takato laughed.  This guy was really an idiot.  "That's like saying we should annihilate the human race to protect the world from destruction!"

            Yamaki thought about this for a moment, then responded: "But there are only three good digimon!  You've fought countless dozens of them!"

            Takato was seriously ticked off.  "Obviously, only the bad digimon want to cross over to the real world to commit crimes!  There are probably more good ones in the digital world!  Besides, it's like the human race: there are only a handful of law enforcers and shitloads of criminals!"

            Yamaki shook his head remorsefully.  "If only you children could see the truth… but you are far too young too."

            That pushed Takato past his patience limit.  Moving forward, he performed a roundhouse kick to Yamaki's torso that sent him flying off his feet and into the nearby wall.  Other people in the area were shocked at the strength the young boy exhibited.  With lightning speed, Takato was already in front of Yamaki, foot on his chest.

            "I've had enough of your arrogance!  You think you know everything just because you're an adult and work for some secret government spy agency? (Yamaki had a heart attack when he heard this; he thought the boy knew about Hypnos)  Well, I have news for you!"

            Taking his foot off, Takato leaned forward and grabbed Yamaki with his left hand.  Pulling him up so they were face-to-face, Takato spoke through clenched teeth: "This is much more than a game.  Much, much more.  Something is at work behind the scenes here; somebody is pulling the strings, letting the digimon through, working against us.  The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance, and both you, and your little secret agency, are powerless to stop it.  Digimon are at the root of this problem, and only digimon will be able to solve it.  So I advise you… whatever plans you have, to obliterate all digimon, or to seal off the real world… they won't work.  They never will.  So just get a good seat, grab some popcorn, and watch the fireworks."

            Pushing Yamaki back to the ground, Takato looked off to the side before continuing.  "This is our show, and we are running it. WE will find the person or digimon responsible for the digimon attacks, WE will locate it, and WE… will destroy it."

            Looking back to Yamaki's fallen form, Takato had one last line.  Leaning forward to deliver it, he whispered, "This is not a game…"

            "This… is our destiny."

            Pulling back, ignoring the crowd that had already gathered, Takato abruptly turned and continued in the direction he had been traveling before, pushing past the crowd who parted for him with a certain degree of fear.

            Yamaki got up slowly.  The boy's words still rang in his mind… but he would prove him wrong.  He would prove them all wrong.  Letting loose a laugh that unnerved the crowd, he, too, turned and continued in the opposite direction of the boy, to finish his walk.

-----

            Riley was first to notice her boss reenter, and also the first to notice her boss's injuries.  "Sir!  You're hurt!"  Rushing up to Yamaki, she began eying him, checking for anything that might have been infected.

            Yamaki waved her off.  "It was just an accident.  Nothing to be worried about."

            Riley backed off slightly, but was still a bit suspicious.  "Are you sure?"

            Yamaki's voice was firm.  "Yes, I'm sure."

            Riley decided to drop it.  "When do you want to launch Shaggai?"

            Yamaki smiled at the thought.  "In one hour."

            Riley nodded.  "I'll tell the engineers."  She took off for the room that housed Shaggai to notify the workers there.

            Yamaki, meanwhile, decided to make one more inspection of Shaggai before going outside to view his creation.  He was almost breathless with anticipation.

-----

            An hour later, Takato was back in the park, going through his cards, when suddenly Guilmon went berserk.  His eyes dilating, he started snarling, and even Takato felt uneasy.  Something told Takato something bad was going to happen, and soon.  Packing up his cards he took off with Guilmon for where the feeling seemed to be strongest, towards a pair of skyscrapers in the heart of West Shinjuku.

-----

            Renamon phased in.  "Rika, I've sensed some sort of disturbance near the city center, but haven't seen any digital fields.  However, my senses have been going wild… like something big is going to happen."

            Rika snorted.  "How sure are you about this?"

            Renamon was confident.  "Very sure."

            Rika stood up.  "Very well then, but if nothing happens, you'll be the only one to blame."  Grabbing her D-arc and cards, she set off for the city center as well, Renamon phasing in and out behind her.

-----

            "Momentai, Henry, we got big problems!"

            Henry paused his computer game.  "What do you mean?"

            Terriermon raised his ears.  "I'm feeling something weird… something bad is gonna to happen very soon!"

            "Where?"

            "Not far from here, maybe a few blocks away…"

            "Alright, let's go check it out."

-----

            Yamaki was a safe distance away when his watch hit 6:00.  Smiling, he spoke into his microphone: "Launch Shaggai."

            Elsewhere, strange machinery hummed to life as the Shaggai program was turned on and began its task…

-----

            All of Shinjuku was shocked to see the sky torn apart as a large digital field appeared.  Some sort of giant beam was being generated from two skyscrapers, which was causing the rift in the sky.  People looked up and pointed; however, in the midst of all this, four people (and 3 digimon) remained stoically calm as they headed for the proverbial eye of the storm.

            Henry and Rika, being closer to Hypnos than Takato was, reached there first.  Yamaki turned, expecting the brown-haired kid, but it was the other two tamers.  The three of them, plus the 'plush toy' Terriermon and the Renamon who was hidden, were the only ones still in the area, the rest having fled already.

            "Ah, you two are just in time to witness a grand moment in history."

            Henry and Rika both turned, startled.  "What do you mean?" asked Henry.

            Yamaki smiled.  "What I mean… is the utter and complete deletion of all digimon from the face of the Earth."

            Both tamers were shocked.  "What?!"

            Before they could do anything else, however, something went terribly wrong…

-----

            Culumon was flying around enjoying himself, generally having a good time, when suddenly a huge beam shot out of two of the tall thingies and formed a big hole in the sky!  Unable to fly that high, Culumon decided to glide over to the base and see what the commotion was all about; besides, he could stand to make a few friends!  He had talked to this one other digimon once, a red and black dinosaur, but he hadn't even noticed Culumon because he had been busy digging!

-----

            Meanwhile in the park, Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta had been discussing Takato's behavior as of late.  He had ignored all of them in class, and after school he simply disappeared.  They were concerned about their friend's actions, and had been debating whether or not to take action when suddenly the sky opened up as a giant beam hit the sky.  All three of them looked at each other, and Kazu, being Kazu, immediately set off for the giant beam, dragging an unwilling Kenta and submissive Jeri behind him.

-----

            Finally in the real world, Mihiramon scanned his surroundings.  Detecting data directly on the street below him, he leapt off his high perch on the skyscraper, falling downwards, wings stretched, ready to maim his prey.

-----

            Terriermon was the first to notice.  "Guys!  SCATTER!"  As the three dodged out of the way, Mihiramon landed, eyes already trained on the Terriermon.  Renamon also phased in, and Mihiramon sized both up before laughing.  "Is this the best the humans have to offer?  Two rookies?  Very well, who wants to be deleted first?"

            "That won't be happening!"  Both Rika and Henry, having mastered the art of digivolution, prepared their cards.  In the meantime, Culumon, who had arrived on the scene, decided to hide in an alley from 'the big scary digimon!'

            "DIGIMODIFY!  Digivolution, Activate!"

            Renamon/Terriermon… digivolve… to!

            Mihiramon looked on, amused, as the two rookies advanced to the next stage of evolution (though they were still pretty weak):

            KYUUBIMON/GARGOMON!

            Mihiramon smirked.  "Not good enough."  With that, he leapt at the two digimon.

-----

            Midway through the battle, Kazu, with Kenta and Jeri, had too reached Hypnos by a series of back alleys.  Poking their heads out of one of them, they watched the battle with fascination.  They momentarily pulled back into the alley: "Oh my god!  Digimon!  Real digimon!  They exist!" was the general mood for all of them.  After the initial excitement had died down, however, they went back to watching the battle.

-----

            The battle looked bad.  Yamaki dared not enter Hypnos; in fact, he dared not leave the tamers because they offered his best chance of protection right now.  Still, the two were losing, Gargomon having been forced back into rookie and Kyuubimon taking heavy damage.  Mihiramon hadn't even been bruised, and with another Samurai Tiger Tail, hit Kyuubimon with enough force to send her into the ground and back into rookie.  She didn't move after that.

            Mihiramon now looked at the three humans with a voracious smirk.  "Now… which one of you to eat first…?"

            He was interrupted from behind.  "Sorry to interrupt your party, but I really didn't want to miss out!"

            Mihiramon whirled around as the three humans noticed who had been talking.  Rika was the first to react: "Takato!"

            Takato grinned.  "Guilmon!  Let's show that oversized pussy what you can do!"

            Guilmon stepped forward.

            "DIGIMODIFY!  Digivolution, Activate!"

            Guilmon… digivolve… to…

            GROWLMON!

            Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri were all surprised at the appearance of Takato.  After suggesting that becoming a tamer might have been the reason Takato was so cold now, they opted to discuss such things later and instead watched as the battle began.

            Looking at his new opponent, Mihiramon decided that he was slightly more powerful than the previous two, but not by much.  Still, he was well below Mihiramon's power level.  Grinning to himself, he was about to open his mouth to speak, when Growlmon did it first, except not to talk, but to fire an attack:

            "PYRO BLASTER!"

            The attack struck Mihiramon dead on.  When the smoke cleared, everybody could see that Mihiramon had been slightly singed.

            Mihiramon smiled.  "You are powerful for a champion… too bad you'll never make it to ultimate."  With a roar, Mihiramon leapt at Growlmon, the words 'Samurai Tiger Tail' already on his lips, while Growlmon prepared his arm blades for his Dragon Slash attack.

-----

            Truth to be told, Growlmon lasted longer and did more damage than Gargomon and Kyuubimon had, combined.  However, Mihiramon was holding back slightly, wanting the battle, the challenge, to last longer.  However, he quickly became bored after a while, and announced this:

            "It's been fun, but I'm rather tired of this battle.  Let us end it now!"

            With a ferocious lunge, Mihiramon leapt forward, faster than Growlmon could react, and bit him in the shoulder.

            Then… something astonishing happened.

            For a second, just the briefest second… both Growlmon, and Takato as well, seemed to burst into data, their forms turning into loose clouds of it.

            It was over immediately, with Growlmon de-digivolving into Guilmon then being knocked backwards with a headbutt.  However, all eyes were trained on Takato, who spent a split second longer lingering in his half-deleted state before restabilizing.  However, on his right shoulder, where Mihiramon had bit Growlmon, there was a large open sore… a deep wound that was spurting blood.

            In his weakened state, Takato fell to his knees, panting heavily from blood loss.  Mihiramon, smirking, turned to the other three, who were still stunned at what had happened with Takato and how his shoulder was injured.

            "Now… in order to prove the superiority of digimon over humans… I will eat the one they call the Digimon Queen!"

            Stepping forward and lowering his head, he opened his mouth, saliva already dribbling down his chin.  Rika backed away, visibly shaken, thinking _this is not how I wanted my life to end…_

            Takato looked up weakly.  His eyes flew open when he noticed Mihiramon's jaws slowly closing in on a certain orange-haired girl.  Rage filled his hearts at the sight, and though nobody noticed, Takato's eyes flashed red for a few moments as he shakily stood up.  Closing his eyes, he let out a yell of indignation.

            "RIKA!"

            Suddenly, a bright light emanated from Takato's deck of cards.  All, including Mihiramon, turned to face Takato as he fumbled with his cardholder.  Pulling out one shining card, he gasped as the light died down, revealing… of all things… a solid blue card.

            Not wasting any time, Takato already knew what to do with it.

            "DIGIMODIFY!"

            All eyes were on Takato as all present waited for the name of the card to be slashed.  Words formed in Takato's mind, as if he had known what to do even before he started the slash.

            "MATRIX EVOLUTION!  ACTIVATE!"

            Guilmon, who had recovered from the headbutt and was standing (rather weakly) on his feet, felt a new kind of power surge through him, as…

            Guilmon… digivolve… to…

            His form grew even bigger than the one he had in his champion state, and that soon became apparent when:

            WARGROWLMON!

            Mihiramon stepped backwards, shocked.  This… this was an ultimate!

            Takato was going to take no chances.  "WARGROWLMON!  DELETE HIM NOW!"

            Wargrowlmon nodded (as best as he could, anyway).  "Acknowledged."  Charging up a massive beam in his chest, Mihiramon braced himself for the impact as Wargrowlmon announced the attack name:

            "Atomic… BLASTER!"

-----

            Mihiramon's data flew into the night air, but was quickly sucked back down and into Guilmon.  As the data merged with Guilmon's, Guilmon's wounds healed, and consequently, so did Takato's.  Though his shirt was soaked in blood on the right side, his wound closed up quickly, leaving no trace, not even a scar, to indicate that there had been a gargantuan gash there.

            Guilmon headed to his partner's side as Takato engaged in a staring match with the other three.  Renamon and Terriermon, whom had both woken up during Growlmon's battle, now stood with their tamers, also giving dubious stares to Takato.

            Rika spoke up first, and summed up the feelings of everybody present:  "Takato… what the hell was that?"

            Takato looked down.  "I don't know either," he almost whispered, but still loud enough for everybody to hear, "but I do intend to find out."  Looking back up, he made eye contact with Rika for the briefest of moments, before turning away.

            "Let's go, Guilmon… there's nothing more to do here."

            With his partner, Takato walked off into the setting sun, leaving the rest to stare at him in amazement.

            Henry shook his head.  "That guy sure is strange…"

            Terriermon gave a sly smile.  "Of course he is, Henry, why else would he be in love with Queenie over there?"

            Henry gulped and turned to Rika, who now had a very violent red on her cheeks.  "Umm… Rika…"

            After that, they followed Takato into the sunset, Henry panicking, Terriermon Momentai-ing, Rika screaming promises of slow deaths, and Renamon simply taking the running as training.

-----

            Yamaki watched as the kids ran off down the street, astonished at what he had just seen.  Never before had any of the children been hurt as their digimon had been – this was something else.  That boy, Takato, was different from the rest – but why?

            As he headed back into Hypnos to confront his technical crew about another botched job, however, he thought to himself, _the kid was right.  He isn't playing any game… this is life-or-death, and he knows it_.

-----

            Kazu looked at Kenta and Jeri with astonishment.  "That… was the SWEETEST THING EVER!"

            Jeri smiled.  "Well, at least we sort of know why Takato acts the way he does now."

            Kenta nodded, pushing up his glasses.  "We should go talk to those other two, they might be able to help us."

            Jeri agreed with Kenta's idea immediately.  "I know the blue-haired one is Henry Lee… do you know who the girl is?"

            Kazu's face brightened up when Jeri brought up the girl.  "That's Rika Nonaka… the Digimon Queen!  She's really famous and all… we'll probably have trouble talking to her too, she seems like the I'll-beat-you-up-if-you-even-look-at-me-wrong kinda girl…"

            Kenta shuddered at the thought.  "Well, at least we have a start, with Henry…"

            Jeri finished it.  "Let's go find him tomorrow, after school.  In the meantime, though, we should go home… it's pretty late."

-----

            As Jeri waved goodbye to her two friends, she was left to walk home alone, pondering all the way: _Takato… is this what happened to you?  Did all this fighting change you somehow?_  Jeri was genuinely worried about her friend, but was determined to help him any way she could.  _Well, whatever happens, we'll find a way to change you back!  I know we will…_

-----

            Henry ducked into an alley and stuck his head out.  "Did we lose her?"

            Terriermon nodded in agreement.  "I think we did, Momentai!"

            "Good."  Henry then turned around… and slapped Terriermon on the head.

            "Hey, what was that for?!"

            "For almost getting us killed, that's what!  You know Rika's hot-temp- "

            "Hello again, Culu!"

            Both tamer and digimon turned to stare at Culumon, who had been watching the spectacle.  With a giggle, he flew down and circled the pair.

            "Culumon?  What are you doing here?"

            Culumon laughed.  "I saw the big light in the sky, and came here!  Then, I watched the big cat get fight the big dinosaur!  It was cool, with neat lights and everything!"

            Henry turned to Terriermon.  They had discussed this before; how Culumon seemed to be there every time one of the digimon digivolved.  Perhaps this was another piece in the puzzle…

            "So, do you wanna play, Culu?"

            Henry laughed.  "Sorry Culumon, it's late out, we should be heading home…"

            "Awww…" at this Culumon's dropped and his expression changed to a sad one.

            Already sorry he had said that, Henry sighed, then added "We'll make sure to play with you tomorrow though, OK?"

            Culumon brightened up.  "OK Culu!  Then I'll see you tomorrow!"  With that, Calumon took to the night sky, intent on finding other things to do.

            Henry walked out of the alley cautiously.  "It looks clear Terriermon… we'd better head home before Rika finds us again."

            "You know, Henry, the exercise really is good for you!"

            "Terriermon?"

            "Yes?"

            "Shut up."

-----

            Meanwhile, in a similar alley, an Impmon leapt down from the roof of an adjacent building with much on his mind.  _Bah.  That stupid kid and dinoboy… I coulda taken out that digimon by myself!_  Landing on a garbage container, he decided to head back for the park, as it was growing late and even he needed his rest.  However, that didn't mean he wasn't going to launch fireballs at everyone who crossed his path… which he did.  _I'll find those two tomorrow… I'll show them who's the strongest around here!  Me!_

            Laughing at the thought, Impmon, now in a merrier mood, didn't launch quite as many Bada Booms as before on his way back to his newfound shelter.

-----

            Meanwhile, in the Dark Ocean, the person who had created the orb smirked.  His creation had performed well for him – there were so many negative feelings, so much anger, hatred, and general darkness in the boy that he had already more than paid for what he had taken to create him.  Of course, there were some odd positive emotions here and there, like love, but they were overshadowed by the more negative traits.  Soon, thought the figure, soon he would be able to travel to the real world… and when he deleted and absorbed the boy, he would have enough power to return to his home reality and exact revenge on those who had banished him to the desolate Dark Ocean.

-----

RANTS:

Complaints:

1) I rushed this so much, it is not even funny – the storyline, I mean.

2) Impmon, Culumon, Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri are not spending much time in the spotlight.  Hopefully more of them later… as in the next chapter, or two.

3) Yes, the plotline is screwed up.  Don't blame me for having watched half of Out of the Blue.  Ok, I _did_ have some help from Ash… I'll blame the rest on 'author power'.

Be thankful.  Without Ash, the plotline would be even MORE screwy… if that's even humanly possible.  So thank her. =P

Thanks also to Angel of the Hazard and Dark Child for helping me with some parts of the story and letting me bounce plot events off them.  I love you both *sob*

That's all.  Comments and insults, once again, to the review popup box below, or to sarukada@hotmail.com.

PS since so many people asked, the place where I got the 6th Digimon Movie (Runaway Digimon Express) is at .


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